


they run on spite

by divisionten



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn, ten years of pining, these boys are idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-29 04:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20957165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divisionten/pseuds/divisionten
Summary: post kh3.time to punt a god.............punch a god...............tolerate a god.........................??? a god?





	they run on spite

**Author's Note:**

> For the KH3 rarepairs zine, Missed Connections! If you liked this, there's more should you wish to do some digging.

**** ** _Breath_ ** .

A deep gulp of disorienting air filled his lungs. 

Vanitas felt queasy, but it couldn’t have been from food. He’d been running on empty since entering the Badlands with the rest of Xehanort’s puppets.

And then his hand burned.

The very last thing he recalled left a bitter taste in his mouth. He spat out black ichor, leaving a mark on the ground of… wherever he was. It looked like San Fransokyo a little, if a bit less shiny.

The last thing he could remember was pity.

Ventus and Sora had both looked on with worry as he gave them one final metaphorical middle finger before fading into oblivion.

Or, if not oblivion, a city that he prayed had running water and indoor plumbing. Not that he prayed,  ** _ever_ ** .

If his track record was anything to go by, if there  ** _were_ ** a god out there it certainly didn’t give a shit about him.

He opened his right palm to see red symbols burned into it. At regular intervals- no, at every second- the final digit changed He didn’t know how to read them, but there was one thing he did realize: 

It was some sort of timer.

* * *

Vanitas hurried through what seemed to be the city square, a giant open crossing surrounded by shops and restaurants. The lettering looked vaguely familiar, definitely similar to San Fransokyo’s. Xehanort had never bothered to give him the translation spell that let him read foreign script; the old coot was probably worried he’d run off and learn things on his own. To be fair, Vanitas had no loyalty to the man, and would have bolted if he knew he had a place to go and something to do.

He had neither.

“Hora! Oi!” someone shouted at him, running full tilt. A car sped through the crossing, and right into the teenage man.

Or, more precisely,  ** _through him_ ** .

“Aibou iru?” the man asked, pointing down at Vanitas’s glowing hand symbols. He noticed the teen had them on his right hand too.

“What, you too?” Vanitas asked irritably, his shadow boiling with mild frustrations.

The teen just shook his head. “Gaikokujin da naaaa…” he sighed.

“Look, kid, I. Do. Not. Speak. San. Fransokian,” Vanitas growled out, pissed.

First pity, now intelligible speech. At least Vanitas knew he was working himself up into enough of a fervor to open up a dark corridor out. He felt a few Flood pop loose from his shadow, and the young man jumped back. He was wary, frantically looking between his palm and Vanitas’s now six small Floods chittering and encircling him.

Slowly, the teen extended his hand anyway. “Jikan ga nai,” he whispered hoarsely.

Vanitas didn’t understand the words, but he recognized the panic he so often felt himself, and pulled the boy’s hand to his.

For a moment Vanitas was blinded by a harsh light…

...and then he finally puked his guts out all over the pavement. He hadn’t even realized he wasn’t in the middle of the crosswalk anymore, but a new, cramped area with pipes crossed haphazardly overhead.

“Daijoubu?” the teen asked, leaning next to him but offering enough space.

“Fuck off,” Vanitas groaned.

A person in a red hoodie, only noticeable due to the lack of bystanders, panicked off to the side of the dripping underpass. He pulled a device out of their pocket, and began speaking frantically into it.

A moment later, someone tapped Vanitas on the shoulder.

“Sora! What the… what happened to  ** _you_ ** ?”

Vanitas most certainly didn’t squeal like a tiny shadow Heartless, nor did he jump three feet in the air.

(It did, however, sound a bit like his Unversed, and it was about 2.8 feet, by the blonde boy’s estimate.)

“Not Sora,” Vanitas roared, turning heel to face the pretty blonde boy, only to run headfirst into a face full of soft, gigantic white feathers.

“You know him then.” It wasn’t a question, and worse, the asshole blonde was grinning about it.

“Fuck off, pretty boy.”

“Oooh, that does sound fun,” the blonde intoned, hand on his chin as he floated a few inches off the ground. “You planning on helping?”

Vanitas’ morbid agitation turned him a shade of purple usually reserved for asphyxiation before the important- more important than a teen floating on shimmering white wings- realization hit him.

“You can understand what I’m saying.”

“Yes, I’ve been to your world before. Or worlds.”

“Then, get me off this one, and send me back.” Vanitas’s shadow boiled, and a few Floods along with one Hareraiser popped out, ready to attack the kid to get his way if needed.

“That would be my pleasure, if you win the game. Name’s Joshua, by the way. I’m going to guess you didn’t understand the briefing either, so I’ll give you one mulligan. Just snap your fingers when you want a time-in.”

Joshua beamed, spreading his arms and wings, and the world tilted slightly. When Vanitas looked back, he and the hoodie wearing kid were gone. The only other person was the teen from yesterday.

“Did God just stop time?” the teen asked.

Vanitas’s jaw hit the floor. “Yeah, and made me able to understand you. So, what in the Worlds is going on here?”

* * *

“So, let me get this straight. That blonde stick named Joshua is a god.”

“Angel, I think. They were a bit vague.”

“We’re dead.”

“You don’t sound that surprised.”

“Nah, I figured that part out. And we have to play a game against the angels and Reapers for a second shot at life?”

“We just have to survive the week. We didn’t actually finish yesterday’s mission but we passed, anyway.”

“ ** _That’s_ ** why you panicked,” Vanitas growled out, looking at the stopped timer on his hand. He’d been right about that too, smiling internally at his intuition.

“I don’t want to die.”

Vanitas wanted to correct him, but didn’t feel the need. “So, we don’t actually have to do these missions, just hope someone does, right?”

“Well, if everyone feels that way, we all fail, don’t we?”

“So everyone else will do ‘em. I’ve got a better idea, shorty.”

“Kanji.”

“Shorty,” Vanitas reiterated, not really bothering with the name. “Why don’t you and I go ‘n beat up a god?” he added, cracking his knuckles.

* * *

For a week Kanji and Vanitas ignored their missions, flipping off Reapers and picking every fight possible against the invisible Unversed-like shadow monsters roaming the streets. Vanitas wouldn’t say Kanji was his first real friend, but he might, if pressed, admit the brown haired boy was the first person who wasn’t an outright enemy.

And Vanitas needed it; his Keyblade had been taken from him when he died. Relying only on his fists, and the occasional Unversed if he got pissed off enough, they ploughed their way through five more days.

* * *

Vanitas peered over Kanji’s shoulder to read their final day’s mission mail. “Defeat the Conductor. You have 300 minutes. Fail, and face Erasure.”

Vanitas’s hand burned, and as he’d done the previous days, looked to check. 300 minutes and counting down. He grinned.

“Looks like we’re not ignoring today’s mission, are we?”

* * *

Joshua practically fell off the sofa and onto the thick plexiglass floor of the strange room that Vanitas and Kanji had tracked him to. There were sharks and other large, possibly extinct, probably dead fish swimming underfoot.

Vanitas didn’t care.

He readied his stance while Kanji powered up this World’s magic behind him, levitating ever so slightly off the plexiglass.

“What the hell are you-?” Joshua asked, rolling off the sofa, confused.

“You’re going down!” Vanitas cried, and jumped straight for a right hook, loss of Keyblade be damned. He knew he had surprise on his side as well as the upper hand- hopefully soon the whole fist, too, right in Joshua’s face. Kanji’s magic was so strong it hads scared off the black-winged people the day before; Joshua’s lackeys, they’d discovered.

Vanitas suddenly felt like molasses. Time was inching to a standstill. He was still mid swing, but while he could feel time slowing to a comp l e t e h a l t…

Joshua was still moving at normal speed, effortlessly stepping to one side at the last second. Vanitas himself was suddenly light as a feather, following through on a full body punch to the air. He spiraled, landing flat on the glass, and staring down a coelacanth. Before he could get up, Joshua had planted a brown loafer on his back, between his shoulder blades.

It felt like a two-ton weight.

“Are you two going to dick around or are you going to-”

Vanitas could feel his hand burn just at the moment Joshua’s phone buzzed.

“-nevermind. You’re already here. You can follow me.”

* * *

“You’re not the Conductor?” Vanitas asked incredulously, as sixteen people, himself included, sat around a large dais facing an irritated looking Joshua.

“No, I’m not. But someone did beat her, so here we are.”

One by one, the remaining spirits were called into an antechamber to discuss something. Not one came back out.

“Not-Sora?” one of Joshua’s lap-dogs with a clipboard asked, though he was the only one left. “What kind of name is Not-Sora?”

Vanitas grunted, stretched his legs, and followed her to the featureless back room.

Joshua frowned over paperwork. Vanitas went for another surprise hook, and, unlike earlier that day, Joshua merely snatched the fist out of thin air and held it in place.

“Sorry, dear, I can see that coming a mile away.”

“I’m not  ** _dear_ ** . Where’s everyone else?” Vanitas demanded.

“So you do care what happened. They all got reincarnated, or took a job under me. Though it was fourteen to one on reincarnation. Which leads me to my follow up question.”

Vanitas ground his jaw and a Flood squeaked out underfoot. “Reincarnated means?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. You’ll wake up as if your death didn’t happen, the last place you were.”

“You going to, I dunno, leave me with money or food or something?”

“Normally, yeah, if you were homeless. But you’re not from this world; I don’t have control over where you’re from. Bringing you back to life’s as much as I can do.”

“And working for you?”

“You’re still dead, technically, but the living can see and interact with you. You’ll have room and board, and a small salary.”

“And I have to antagonize other dead people?”

“Pretty much.”

“So, let me get this straight;, reincarnation sends me back to the middle of bum-fuck nowhere with no food and a million people who want me dead…”

“Again, from the sound of your lovely attitude,” Joshua cut in matter of factly, releasing Vanitas’s clenched fist.

“-or I stay dead and work for you for a roof over my head and food. And beat people up for a living.”

“Yep,” Joshua said, popping his “p” hard. “As long as you’re not murdering the living, or erasing the dead. Rough ‘em up and scare ‘em.”

Vanitas inhaled. He’d already made his decision, but still.  ** _Appearances_ ** and all that.

“Do you need a resume and references?” he growled jokingly.

* * *

“Sora!” A teenager, maybe Sora’s age or a little younger, ran full tilt towards Vanitas. Someone else who knew Vanitas’s other. He should probably figure out how they all did, somehow.

Joshua put himself between the oncoming teen and Vanitas, the latter breathing a sharp sigh of relief. “Not Sora,” Joshua clarified. “And he doesn’t do touching.”

“Oh.” The teen froze. “Sorry. I was just… I was worried. I can see,  ** _you know_ ** , and finding Sora here like that would, well, I did tell him I’d meet him here in Shibuya someday.”

“Sora killed me,” Vanitas gruffed out. “So he’s probably still kicking it with his prissy little friends and his prissy little girlfriend.”

The teen looked a little stunned, and moved to say something, but Joshua stopped him again.

“Neku, dear, if Vanitas wants to talk about it, he will. Don’t pry into my employees’ personal business. We had an agreement.”

“Uh, yeah, right, okay,” Neku agreed. “Sorry, Vanitas.”

“If I want to spill my heart out, I’ll find you,” Vanitas mock intoned. “ ** _Scram_ ** .”

“Uh, yeah, sorry,” Neku said, embarrassed. “Postpone, then?”

“Tomorrow?” Joshua said, more gently. “I have to find a dorm for him.”

“Tomorrow, sure,” Neku said, bowing, and hurrying off.

“Former employee?”

“Not like you are, but… yes,” Joshua said with a sigh. “Went from hating everyone to being a bit too proactive, but…”

“He’s basically Sora.”

“Didn’t use to be,” Joshua droned. “He  ** _used_ ** to be like me.”

A calm silence settled between them as Joshua walked Vanitas, with a single duffle bag filled with Reaper uniforms and some new clothes- the first honest-to-goodness gift he had ever received- slung over a shoulder. New clothes, and now his own space? It was almost too much. Vanitas gulped and said a word he’d never said before in his life.

“Thanks.”

“What, for stopping Neku?”

“I guess.”

“It’s nothing, really.”

Not to Vanitas, it wasn’t.

* * *

** _Fall, 2020_ **

“...so there I was, standing on the roof, and the security guard was panicking, out of breath, trying to tell me I had so much to live for, just get off the ledge… but I was trying to reach a really aggressive Noise I didn’t want the Reapers fighting, so I jumped off the building. God, you should have seen the poor man’s face.” Joshua laughed until his ears turned pink, and Vanitas slunk into the booth opposite, letting out half a snort, before attempting an uppercut. Once, just once, he wanted to hit Joshua in his smug-ass face, though, after six months a Reaper it was less out of malice and becoming more about the pure challenge of it all. Like spotting an error on a boss’s meticulous report.

Joshua, with a bored look, swatted away the fist.

“You’ll have to do better,” followed immediately by a surprised, “ ** _oh_ ** .”

A brightly colored parrot was laughing on Vanitas’s shoulder.

“Thought you said those things hurt.”

“Yeah, well, finally loosening up and all,” Vanitas admitted, looking at the gentle, mocking Unversed that was already disinterested and preening. “The ones from happier emotions don’t really hurt. And if someone attacks them, the happy emotion comes back. It’s sort of a… feedback loop.”

“Just don’t sic them on players. That’s above your pay grade,” Joshua admonished, waving a slightly soggy French fry at Vanitas. “Ooooor… maybe it's time to up your pay grade…”

* * *

** _Winter 2020_ **

“Lieutenant!” Joshua was chipper, waving down Vanitas. He still hadn’t gotten used to the title. One of his coworkers gently pushed him in the back to nudge him towards the angel, and he didn’t even flinch from the contact.

“Miss me?” Vanitas said with a smirk as he went for a solid punch to Joshua’s jaw. In a blink, Joshua was behind him, tapping him on a black wing.

Vanitas grumbled, but the bite was long gone. Who knew dying would be the best thing to ever happen to him?

Or maybe… maybe not dying per se…

“I’ve got some 100-yen coins burning a hole in my pocket,” Joshua grinned. “Maybe you could work on those piss-poor reflexes at the light-gun machines?”

Vanitas went through the effort of groaning, hemming and hawing at spending time with Joshua off hours, but a small, chipper kitten bounded out of his shadow and rubbed itself on Joshua’s leg. Joshua tilted his head slightly and raised a wing to get a closer look at the unfamiliar addition. 

“Oh, hello. Vanitas, you going to tell me what emotion this new friend is or am I gonna have to guess?”

Vanitas just grabbed the Unversed by the scruff of its neck and placed it on a shoulder. “No way in hell.”

“Well, this is more purgatory, sooo… Ooooh! Purr-gatory!”

“I hate you.”

Joshua smiled. It was pretty clear by the tiny cat that it was a lie.

* * *

** _Spring 2021_ **

“Surprise!” The room cheered as Neku winced. Joshua tapped Vanitas on the shoulder a moment before a small army of Reapers ripped open their confetti poppers, exploding in color and sound. For Vanitas, though, it was merely color. Joshua knew him well enough to put a muting spell on him just before the poppers had sprung.

After the confetti fell, he discreetly tapped again, before dancing off to congratulate Neku on getting into art university.

Vanitas hung back, touching the spot on his shoulder.

* * *

** _Fall 2022_ **

“You haven’t aged a day.”

Vanitas blinked, and spun on a heel. “Shorty?”

Kanji eyed Vanitas carefully, Vanitas’s former partner a good 10cm taller now, but let it go. “You’re… you didn’t take the job offer did you?”

Vanitas just shrugged. “Didn’t have anywhere else to go. Remember I couldn’t even understand you until Joshua intervened. Only real downside is I’m stuck in Shibuya unless the big man upstairs gives me a hall pass.”

Kanji frowned. “You  ** _work_ ** for that prick?”

“Eh, he ain’t so bad. Or no, he is. But it's a kind of bad you learn to tolerate.”

“Sounds like Stockholm Syndrome.”

Vanitas growled, something deep at the back of his throat. “You died in a bike accident, right? Three years ago? You know how I got offed?”

Kanji sighed, shook his head, and slung his briefcase. “No, but by the choice of words, you were killed.  ** _Deliberately_ ** .”

“Yeah I was. I was fighting for a man I’d basically been a slave to. I know Stockholm Syndrome. This ain’t it.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, well now you do.”

Kanji relaxed a little. “You actually sock him yet? Joshua?”

“Not yet, but I’m getting closer. I can stop time for a few seconds now.”

Kanji glanced at his watch. “Oh? Hey, why don’t I get us some coffee? Grim Reapers can drink coffee, right?”

“I’m dead, not immortal, I could use the caffeine,” Vanitas drolled.

“You’ve… gotten softer, Vanitas, and that’s not a bad thing.”

“Uh-uh. No way, nope. Totally hard. All sharp edges. I mean, look at my hair!”

“Yeah, how much gel do you use, anyway?” Kanji slipped him gently on the shoulder with his elbow, and Vanitas flinched. Not because he’d been touched, but because Kanji went through his wings.

“You okay?”

“I… you phased through my wing. Forgot mortals did. Come on, you owe me two coffees now.”

* * *

** _Summer 2023_ **

“This close!” Vanitas held his index finger and thumb a centimeter apart to show Kanji and Neku. “This close to covering Joshua’s shirt in red wine.”

“Are you even old enough to drink?” Neku asked jokingly.

Vanitas shrugged. “Depends on which birth certificate you look at. Actually, no, I’m older than twenty now either way.”

Neku just let the comment roll off him, he’d dealt with Reapers enough by now to not ask unless specifically allowed to pry further.

“So, when’s the wedding?” Kanji asked him toothily. Neku just elbowed him in the ribs.

Vanitas took an inhale he didn’t need as a dead man, about to argue, but stopped himself.

It wasn’t such a bad idea, honestly.

* * *

** _Fall 2023_ **

“I need your help.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t the first time Joshua asked for assistance, but this felt… different. More personal.

“Assignment?”

“No… and… er, you can say no to this if you don’t want to.”

“Well? You going to actually tell me why you asked?”

Joshua turned pink to his ears, a rare sight. “ ** _Preening_ ** .” When Vanitas only scrunched up his face, Joshua spread his wings. They were a mess. “I’m molting. It  ** _sucks_ ** . I need help.”

“You really trust me to be wrist-deep pulling feathers out of your precious angel wings?”

“Yes, dear. Always.”

No hesitation, no delay.

“Even if I slug you?”

“You mean  ** _attempt_ ** to slug me, dear, and especially since you do. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like a nice view of the city while getting my spa treatment. The top of 104 sounds perfect, no?”

“You smarmy little-  ** _fine_ ** . Come on. But only because I might actually hit you this time.”

* * *

** _Summer’s End, 2029_ **

The air stunk of late summer sweat. At least the smell of gasoline had long since tapered off from the switch to electric vehicles. Vanitas’s phone vibrated irritably in his pocket.

The mission was over. He stretched out his wings, gave his coworker Uzuki a backhanded salute, and walked from his post.

“No ramen tonight? Kariya’s paying,” she asked him.

“I’m gonna soak up some rays before the sun sets,” Vanitas replied with a shrug. “Was going to grab dinner after that.”

“We’re not going till like 8. I’ll text you, squirt. Go bask in that sun. Lord knows you could use a tan.”

She knew exactly what sort of light Vanitas was heading towards, mostly because it was already walking their way, shaking a can, throwing it up in the air, and effortlessly catching it on the landing.

Joshua tossed the canned coffee at Vanitas, already shaken for him.

“Aw, how sweet, you spent a whole 150 yen on me,” Vanitas retorted.

“Too rich for my blood,” Joshua replied with a smile. “I mean, I just walked by the vending machine, and oh! Dear! Whyever did this thing drop out two free canned coffees just like that? I suppose I couldn’t possibly let them go to waste.”

“My boyfriend doesn’t make drinks fall from vending machines,” Uzuki muttered.

Joshua tossed the other one to her, before grabbing Vanitas under the arm to what was definitely not an irritated squeak. “I’m sure another machine with milk tea might be willing to share with me.”

“Well, everything’s free if you own the damn city,” Vanitas grumbled under his breath as they began to walk down the shop-lined avenue.

“I don’t,” Joshua quietly replied in his ear once they were out of range. Vanitas’s hairs on the back of his neck stood up from the sudden lean and whisper. “And I don’t want to.”

“You don’t want to own it all?” Vanitas asked, half curious and half worried. A vending machine to their left clunked loudly as it dispensed a bottle of sweet milk tea for no apparent reason. 

Emphasis to the casual observer on  ** _apparent_ ** .

Vanitas scooped it up with his free hand, and Joshua snatched it with a grin. “Just the important part, mind. Shall we continue this somewhere a little more… intimate?” he added, eyeing up the 104 building and unfurling his pearlescent wings.

Vanitas didn’t even get a moment to answer before Joshua swept the two of them into the humid August air.

* * *

Vanitas quickly set about their usual routine when the two were up on top of 104, looking down at the grandeur of the city as the real sun began to fade and neon started blinking to life. Deft fingers absentmindedly combed through pearl feathers, fixing barbs and plucking loose ones clean. Joshua hummed, while Vanitas strained to pick out the undertones. He started recognizing a few of the melodies after all the years, a trill in D sharp would waft down to someone below to put their damn cell phone away, in an imprint that felt like it was the recipient's own idea. And just like that, a girl in a high school uniform panicked, fleeing off in the direction towards the train station.

“What did you do this time?” Vanitas asked, pointedly.

“She forgot her cake on the subway. I made sure some kind soul handed it off to an attendant, it’s in the lost and found waiting for her. It’s for a boy who might just be her new squeeze.”

“Nobody says  ** _squeeze_ ** anymore.” Vanitas rolled his eyes.

“I do,” Joshua said in a huff, squeezing Vanitas to prove his point. “Want me to do yours this time?”

“What, my wings? Not like they need anything other than a shower.”

“Maybe they will soon.”

Vanitas froze. “Are you… offering a promotion?”

“You’re ready for it,” Joshua said nonchalantly, like they were talking about the weather and not, well,  ** _turning Vanitas into an angel_ ** .

“What about Kariya?”

“He and Uzuki are getting transferred to Chiyoda. They’re short a Conductor and it means Uzuki finally gets that promotion she wants too, they need a lieutenant in Akihabara. Which means  ** _I _ ** have an opening. Partner?”

Vanitas could have replaced that last word with ‘lover’ and the tone would have sounded the same.

“My games are going to drive you batty,” Vanitas insisted with a smirk.

“Are they now, my dear?” Joshua asked, holding up their drinks and popping the tabs for them.

“They’ll be hard, and brutal, and mean, and I’m going to sic my Unversed on ‘em too. Keep the other Reapers on their toes.”

“Other Reapers?” Joshua asked with a raised eyebrow, holding out Vanitas’s coffee. “Might want to rethink that statement.”

Vanitas snatched the coffee and fluffed out his wings, which had suddenly felt heavier and larger than he ever remembered them.

They were covered in soft, downy, white feathers.

“You’ll grow in proper after your first molt.”

Vanitas turned beet red. His wings looked like an oversized baby swan’s!

Joshua smiled, pointedly, and held out something Vanitas hadn’t seen in years. He thrust Void Gear an inch from his face. “I think this might belong to you, too.”

“Fuck you,” he grumbled, equal parts disdain and affection as he downed his coffee in a gulp and went for a sharp right hook, punching Joshua right off the skyscraper.

Joshua grinned all the way down until he went smack on the pavement below, a mushroom cloud of white feathers obscuring the actual landing.

“Fuck!” Vanitas cried, taking a swan dive- pun not even on his mind. Joshua was grinning, sitting down on a smooth unblemished sidewalk without a scratch on him, holding up a double deuce.

“You friggin- heart attack-“

“But my dear, it was you who pushed me! Seems like you finally caught me off guard.”

Vanitas relaxed, sending a cloud of down behind him as his shoulders sagged a little. “I did actually get the jump on you this time, didn’t I?”

“Imagine what you’d do with  ** _pins_ ** .”

Vanitas smirked and rubbed his hands, then helped Joshua up off the pavement. “Oh, I can’t wait to kick your ass now. And remember, you’re the one who gave me the upgrade.”

Joshua linked his arm under Vanitas’s. “I have an eternity for you to remind me, dear.”


End file.
